USA Today: It’s Prime Time For Volunteerism
Subscribe to the Blog RSS FeedOur graphics-infused national daily comes up with a MASSIVE package on the Entertainment Industry Foundation's "I Participate" campaign, and the week of service-themes television that we hope will inspire a nation next week. It's about as thorough a feature as I have ever seen in USA Today, and has plenty of good stuff in it. It's got backstory:
The industry's next big cause, though, would focus on raising awareness, not cash. The idea was propelled by an unlikely duo: Barack Obama and John McCain. Just days after Stand Up aired, the then-presidential contenders attended a public forum held by ServiceNation, telling the advocacy group that public service and volunteerism should be national priorities.
Their bipartisan call to action morphed into "I Participate," a Hollywood-fueled initiative that's shaping up as one of TV's biggest, most innovative public service efforts ever. From next Monday to Oct. 25, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and several cable channels will devote chunks of more than 90 shows to mobilize viewers off their couches.
It's got info:
Audiences will be peppered with celebrity public service announcements (PSAs), end-of-episode pleas from casts and volunteerism segments on reality shows, talk and news programs from The View to Today. But most I Participate messages will be more subtle, weaving motivational themes and dialogue into dozens of scripted sitcoms and dramas as plot points or character-driven story lines.
"Embedding something into entertainment plants a seed that has value in ways a (PSA) doesn't. You're not beating someone over the head with it," says CSI: NY's Hill Harper, whose character, medical examiner Sheldon Hawkes, has volunteered as a first-responder physician.
Next week, viewers will see Private Practice doctors treating the homeless, Ghost Whisperer crime solvers donating blood and Gary Unmarried providing video greetings for troops overseas. "When people see a plan in action, it's much better than some talking head telling them what to do," says actress Dana Delany, whose Katherine Mayfair is among several Desperate Housewives organizing a neighborhood watch.
It's got a surprise twist (and a full list of participating TV programs here):
Initially conceived as a message platform for a handful of TV shows, I Participate has mushroomed into a campaign larger than TV's post-Katrina and 9/11 memorial and fundraising efforts, network programmers say.
"It's just heartwarming to see how everyone embraced this," says Preston Beckman, scheduling chief for Fox, which is incorporating I Participate into scripted series and PSAs for other shows, including Bones, So You Think You Can Dance and COPS. "It's great when you can find something that unites all of us, regardless of our political views."
And, finally, it's got a great rundown on some of the clever service bits some of the shows plan (read the piece for those) as well as some good 'ol skeptical analysis:
On a broader level, how much impact could I Participate have?
Filmmaker Robin Baker Leacock, whose November PBS documentary A Passion for Giving examines the personal and social impact of lending help to others, says the timing of the I Participate effort is prescient, given the troubled economy, high unemployment and strapped consumers. "People are starting to see you only get so much satisfaction acquiring things and status," she says. "Helping others makes people feel good. If TV can show how people can help, even subliminally, that's great."
Others aren't sure that audiences — even through subtle product placement-style messages — won't tune out TV's volunteering themes. Mike Rowe, host of Discovery Channel's popular blue-collar reality series Dirty Jobs, says viewers may be skeptical of celebrities often seen as out of touch with mainstream Americans, no matter how well-intentioned the message.
"Someone trying to inform me or change my behavior by taking real agendas and causes and inserting them into scripted shows and character-driven propositions sounds a little icky," Rowe says. "You can't force-feed good deeds on someone. But if they can pull it off, God love 'em."
Well, we predict God will love it no matter what, because it's exactly the right strategy for our culture in this difficult time. And what the USA Today piece does not delve into is the long-term infrastructure that EIF is putting into the I Participate website, including its rapidly evolving universal volunteer opportunity search engine.
This is not just about a week of television. It's about turbocharging the culture of service with a concerted campaign that will last for years. And fueling it with celebrity and high end film-making makes for some pretty powerful and inspiring material.
